PATHOLOGICAL FINDINGS IN TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY

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Abstract
In 19 patients failing to demonstrate, clinically and radiologically, a space-occupying lesion but whose eeg indicated a unilateral epileptic focus in the temporal lobes, 18 post-operative and 1 post-mortem, were examined for pathology. Three had small tumors and 1 showed gross post-traumatic scarring. Of the remainder, 11 of 14 post-operative cases were benefitted by the lobectomy but the always present lesions varied considerably in quality and degree. There was frequently a laminary atrophy in the third cortical layer, often deep in the sulci and probably of anoxic 104109-10415 PSYCHOSOMATIC MECHANISMS [Vol. 30] 1022 origin. In all cases (7) with onset before age of 10 there was Ammon''S horn sclerosis. Three cases followed a cerebral complication traceable individually to (1) measles (2) status epilepticus following "teething" and (3) chicken pox. The postmortem case had characteristically distributed lesions following status epilepticus in the course of Still''s syndrome at 8 years.